Elizabeth by Edgar Allan Poe — Past Poetry archive

Elizabeth⁠—it surely is most fit [Logic and common usage so commanding] In thy own book that first thy name be writ, Zeno 4 and other sages notwithstanding; And I have other reasons for so doing Besides my innate love of contradiction; Each poet⁠— if a poet⁠—in pursuing The muses thro’ their bowers of Truth or Fiction, Has studied very little of his part, Read nothing, written less⁠—in short ’s a fool Endued with neither soul, nor sense, nor art, Being ignorant of one important rule, Employed in even the theses of the school⁠— Called⁠—I forget the heathenish Greek name [Called anything, its meaning is the same] “Always write first things uppermost in the heart.”